Library News

We rounded out the end of our Fiscal Year in June 2025. Looking back on the year, we wanted to share some of the highlights, including all of the fabulous things we were able to accomplish with the help of our dedicated patrons. 

Our event attendance skyrocketed to 53,849 attendees, we hit the exciting milestone of 1 year with our fearless leader and director, Traci, on staff, and our Words on Wheels truck continued to make hundreds of stops around the City of West Des Moines and expanded our reach.  

The State Library of Iowa is making some updates to the online resources it provides for libraries and their patrons. These changes are part of a regular review to ensure that the most useful and cost-effective services are available to Iowans.

What’s Changing?

Starting on June 30, 2025, the following resources will no longer be available through the State Library and West Des Moines Public Library:

You've been patiently waiting, and we are excited to announce the winners of our West Des Moines Library Card Design Contest! We had over 130 submissions, and after much deliberation, we have chosen the following designs to be printed on actual, usable library cards. 

Since we had so many amazing entries, we are excited to be able to display them on our front lobby display case during the month of June! Stop by to see all of the fantastic designs that we had the privilege of choosing from! 

Thanks to the hard work of librarians around the state, we now have a new Adventure Pass ticketing system in place! You can reserve Adventure Passes by visiting www.iowaadventurepass.org. We are thrilled to bring this service back for our patrons. 

UPDATE: The changes will now take affect on May 31, 2025 to allow our patrons an ample amount of time to switch their cards in Libby/ OverDrive. Please reach out to our Library Technology Coordinator, Louise Alcorn, to switch your card. 

Starting May 31, 2025, we’re making an important update to our digital collection access through OverDrive and Libby. Below, you’ll find a quick overview of what’s changing and why, along with answers to common questions to help guide you through the transition.

Big things are happening behind the scenes here at the library! Our team has been working hard to refresh our Book Sale process so we can start accepting donations again later this year. But before we can welcome new books, we need to clear out some space — and that means it’s time for a bigger-than-normal Book Sale!

Update 6/12: The winners have been announced! See their designs here. 

Calling all artists! Do you love the WDM Public Library? Show your creativity and library love by designing new library cards! In celebration of National Library Week this April, we’re inviting community members of all ages to submit their best designs for a chance to have their artwork featured on official, limited-edition library cards.

In the spirit of March Madness, the WDM Public Library is hosting our own bracket challenge: but with books! We've pulled the top titles in four "divisions": Adult, Young Adult, Picture Books, and Juvenile. Each week, we'll open a new survey to vote your favorite books onto the finals and ultimately crown the Best Book! 

And the winner is... The Women by Kristin Hannah! 

The West Des Moines Public Library is happy to announce the first Academy of Fandom! Maybe you know everything about Dr. Who but would like to learn about why Buffy the Vampire Slayer is still popular. Perhaps you read a lot of DC graphic novels, but would like to expand your universe. Maybe you don’t know the difference between Star Wars or Star Trek and you’re just curious about what it’s all about. Welcome to the Academy of Fandom! We will have one session per week over six weeks on a wide variety of topics.

As of February, 2025 the WDM Public Library has upgraded to NYTimes Online All Access, which includes:

The 97th Academy Awards (The Oscars) presentation is scheduled for Sunday, March 2 at 7pm.  There's still time to watch all of the films before the presentation!  See our list for major categories below including links to our catalog for DVDs to checkout, the streaming service to watch online, or the theater where the movies are showing.  And, just for fun, here is a ballot from thegoldknight.com to vote for your favorites! 

UPDATE 3/25: Our new eNewsletter system will be up and running for our April 2025 newsletter! If you previously subscribed to our eNewsletter, you'll see it in your inbox on April 1. 

In today’s episode, I spoke with two staff members from the West Des Moines Public Library, Kate Thompson and Susan Greenwood, who were founding members of our Accessibility Committee. They recently presented at the Iowa Library Association Conference about their work on the committee and how other libraries can do an accessibility audit of their space and services. They also highlighted some of the incredible work they’ve done so far to make the library more accessible and some dream projects they’re working towards in the future.

We’ve teamed up with Metro Waste Authority to be a convenient drop-off location for your old holiday lights! Just drop them in the bin near our Accounts and Checkouts Desk through January 31 and we'll take care of the rest.

Accepted lights: LED, classic, plastic & glass bulbs, net lights, icicle lights, and even battery-powered strands.

Please drop lights loose, not bagged. Holiday lights are NOT regular recyclables and should not go in your curbside recycling bin. They can damage the sorting equipment at the Metro Recycling Facility.

In today’s episode, we’re celebrating DINOvember with local picture book author, Elizabeth Gilbert Bedia! Liz will be hosting a fun dinosaur ⁠storytime⁠ on Saturday, November 16 at 10:30 AM where she’ll read from her new book, out Tuesday, November 12, called Spinosaurus Makes a Splash. She also will be hosting a craft and singing songs with attendees. We can’t wait!